Furlough

I really expect more from this movie. It has a number of my favorite actors. It had a good premise. I considered watching it again incase I missed something but decided against it.

The story is ripe with plot holes. Melissa Leo has the strongest performance in my opinion. At least she could say she went to jail for bad decisions and with even being near the end of her sentence she would still make bad choices. I would guess either the director or writer were to blame for failed performances of Tessa Thompson and Whoopi Goldberg.

At least the camerawork was good. Worth seeing once if you have the time and nothing better to watch. Hopefully whoever was at fault will improve their craft in the future.

A young, struggling part-time correctional officer gets the chance to become full-time by escorting a prisoner to her mother's deathbed. She is obviously supposed to learn something from the experience of trying to chaperone an unruly but older prisoner. Instead of a script that might let them learn or bond, instead it's a series of scenes with them simply sitting together as they travel.

Unfortunately, it feels as if the plot gets elements added to it to make it difficult. Most of what occurs in the trip seems to happen for no good reason, except to create situations where the inmate can escape, at least temporarily? Why, for example, would they be forced to take a bus and then a train to the mother (but then quickly return via rental car)? Why does the phone of the officer constantly ring or receive texts? Why do romantic interests appear and disappear as if put on the screen like chess pieces?

In short, I wanted to like this movie but it seems a mess, and I kept wondering how much Whoopie Goldberg and Anna Paquin were paid for what must have been 2 days of shooting each (if that). The humour really doesn't work - painfully so. The script is dull at best, and the tone is sometimes too mournful for it's own good. If you are a fan of Orange is the New Black, any episode you've seen is better than this.

Tessa Thompson and Melissa Leo are great but this film is not. Trying to be a female Midnight Run for these times but pretty much nothing working except the performances of the lead actresses. The script is bland and a lot annoying at places and the comedy that is supposed to be working is outdated and boring. Then there is the ending where suddenly Thompson's character change a lot in her life without having any big realizations in the journey or consequences of applying it which is simply baffling that this could have been part of a student script that never got made because it shouldn't be.

This film tells the story of a correctional officer who escorts a prisoner for 36 hours for a death bed visit.

The plot sounds like a heavy drama, but actually it is a light hearted comedy. The plot is funny, even thought there are no specific scenes that make me laugh out loud, it still cheers me up. I think both Melissa Leo and Tessa Thompson are great in the film. I enjoyed this unexpectedly sweet comedy.

Generally an endearing picture about love between mothers and their daughters, set in a quirky, warmhearted story. Good acting performances. Not a terrific movie, but quite nice.

A funny female "buddy" movie about a female cop who has to escort a female convict to her dying mother. Things tend to go get out of control a bit along the way, resulting in some funny and some less funny situations.

Small (10 minutes) , yet funny supporting role by Whoopi Goldberg, who is playing the mom of the police officer. Whoopi keeps calling her daughter while she has to escort the convict, resulting in lots of funny mother-daughter dialogues. Good fun.